Name That Plant!
May 25, 2010 7:43 AM   Subscribe

What fungus/mushroom/something is growing in this mulch? (link inside)
posted by kraigory to Home & Garden (6 answers total)
 
Probably some kind of stinkhorn.
posted by Sys Rq at 7:47 AM on May 25, 2010 [1 favorite]


It's most likely Mutinus caninus.
posted by cog_nate at 8:22 AM on May 25, 2010


(By the way, that's one of the most entertaining Fungus of the Month articles I've read.)
posted by cog_nate at 8:23 AM on May 25, 2010


Also, did you maybe remove the caps or something?
posted by cog_nate at 8:25 AM on May 25, 2010


I don't know the name, but I had 2 exactly like that in my flower bed, the survivors of my previous cleanup. A week or two earlier I had found several marble-sized white spheres, firm (not squishy) with a white opaque skin that slipped off to show a transparent gelatinous goo (kind of like a slip-skin grape, only all colorless). I could see something dark at the center but didn't cut it open. It was gross enough that I checked with my neighbor that I was looking at a proto-fungus, not a proto-reptile.
In short, yes, it looks a lot like cog_nate's dog stinkhorn, but mine didn't have black caps, either, nor did I notice them smelling bad.
posted by aimedwander at 10:15 AM on May 25, 2010


i've been thinking about this all day, because the naked stipes of your fungus . . . well they had no stinky goo on them, which is where they get their names. right? well. i've hunted around and apparently, that stinky goo is full of spores, flies are attracted to it and carry away bits of it, pretty quickly denuding the end (see the first pic on this page). so, yeah, i think Sys Rq and cog_nate have it. (i can see the MushroomExpert.com site is likely to suck up a nice chunk of my time!)
posted by miss patrish at 8:48 PM on May 25, 2010


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